Borderline Consciousness

The 'Towards New Demarcation Criteria for Borderline Consciousness' Project is an interdisciplinary project involving a collaboration between philosophers of Bonn and Cambridge and neuroscientists from the epilepsy clinic in Bonn. Its main purpose is to create an international research forum to develop new criteria for determining whether and when non-human entities, such as non-linguistic animals, new brain organisms, or advanced AI systems can be considered conscious. The project includes the borderline website and the borderline blog on which articles but also interviews of various actors of the departments of epilepsy and IT are regularly posted and an international conference in Bonn in September 2023.

SEPTEMBER 27-28, 2023: CONFERENCE: Detecting Unusual Consciousness. From Brain organoids to AI systems
The Conference will by hybrid.

​ZOOM LINK: 
https://uni-bonn.zoom-x.de/j/67114759797?pwd=RlpCZVFxaTZqVW5oblFXaDJRREhMUT09
ID: 671 1475 9797
Password: 815983

REGISTRATION: Registration free. If you want to attend the Conference in person, please contact: Charlotte Gauvry

VENUE: University of Bonn (Germany)
Sept 27. IZPH philosophy building: Poppelsdorfer Allee 28. Conference room (last floor)
Sept 28. Klinik und Poliklinik für Epileptologie (University Hospital): Venusberg-Campus 1. C83 Building. Penin Seminar room

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Tim BAYNE, Monash (online)
Jonathan BIRCH, LSE
Marcello MASSIMINI, Milan (online)
Elizabeth SCHECHTER, Maryland

PROGRAMME

SEPTEMBER 27
IZPH philosophy building: Poppelsdorfer Allee 28,
Conference room: last floor

9:30. Opening
9:45-10:45. Uwe Peters, Bonn/Cambridge "Do current evidential standards in the science of consciousness help or hinder the discovery of signs of consciousness?"
10:45-11:45. Wanja Wiese, Bochum "Understanding weak and strong artificial consciousness"
11:45-12:00. Coffee
12:00-13:00. Tim Bayne, Monash,  "On the Prospects of Organoid Consciousness'"(online)

Lunch

14:00-15:00. Sidney Carls-Diamante, Konstanz "Is there something it is like to be an octopus arm?"
15:00-16:00. Sarah Diner, Bonn "Preautionary discourse on brain organoids: in search of surrogate markers for consciousness"
16:00-16:15. Coffee
16:15-17:15. Jonathan Birch, LSE "When is a brain organoid a sentience candidate?"

SEPTEMBER 28
Klinik und Poliklinik für Epileptologie (University Hospital): Venusberg-Campus 1. C83 Building. Penin Seminar room

9:30-10:30. Maxence Gaillard, Oslo/ UCLouvain "Consciousness assessment in brain organoids by global and local theories of consciousness"
10:30-11:30. Charlotte Gauvry/ Theodor Rüber​, Bonn "Intact functional brain networks provide evidence for consciousness in the isolated hemisphere in people with hemispherotomy"
11:30-11:45. Coffee
11:45-12:45.  Nurida Boddenberg, Bonn "Signatures of Consciousness: Analyzing Experimental Traces in the Isolated Hemisphere Post-Hemispherotomy to Unravel the Phenomenon"

Lunch

14:00-15:00. Marcello Massimi, Milan "Electrophysiological strategies to infer consciousness in isolated brains" (online)
15:00-15:15. Coffee
15:15-16:15. Elizabeth Schechter, Maryland "Hemispherectomy and Candidate Conscious Beings After Split-brain Surgery"

Funded by the Transdisciplinary Research Area (TRA) “Individuals, Institutions and Societies” (University of Bonn) as part of the Excellence Strategy of the federal and state governments.